Su Jiangtao happily went to find An Jingzhi.
There were ferocious guards from the East Factory guarding the gate of the An Mansion. When they saw him approaching, they immediately shouted, "Stop!"
Su Jiangtao took out two pieces of silver from his pocket, gave one to each of them, and said with a smile, "I'm here to see Master An. Tell Master An that Su Jiangtao is here to see him, and he'll understand."
After receiving the silver, the guards from the Eastern Depot looked much better. They asked him to stand there and wait while one of them went to report and the other kept an eye on him.
After a while, the guards from the East Factory who went to report came out and brought him to An Jingzhi.
"What do you want to talk to me about?" An Jingzhi was lying on the couch. The room had been renovated and was filled with warm fire walls, so the coal would not be wasted.
There is a chimney vent on the roof, so there is no need to worry about poisoning.
Originally, it would have been enough to build a kang, but since the conditions allowed, An Jingzhi didn't want to compromise himself, so he simply built it into a fire wall.
It was freezing outside, but when Su Jiangtao entered the room, he felt the warmth coming towards him. "Huh?"
When he came to his senses and saw An Jingzhi waiting for his reply, he immediately said respectfully, "Brother Jing, didn't you say you wanted to meet my cousin? He's already back. We can meet anytime we want."
"In that case, I will invite your cousin to dinner at Yuxuanju tomorrow at noon." Yuxuanju was the restaurant where An Jingzhi went to beg.
"How can I ask Brother Jing to treat me? My cousin and I will be there on time tomorrow."
An Jingzhi waved his hand to indicate that it didn't matter, it didn't matter who invited him.
Su Jiangtao was about to leave, but he felt the room was too warm and was reluctant to leave. He asked curiously, "Brother Jing, why does this room feel so warm? I don't see any fire burning anywhere."
An Jingzhi pointed at the wall and said, "Reach out and touch it, and you'll know."
Su Jiangtao honestly stretched out his hand and immediately felt a burst of warmth. Surprise flashed in his eyes, "How come this wall is warm?"
"This is called a firewall. Want to build one for your home?"
In fact, this firewall is also a technology that can make some money, but An Jingzhi doesn't think much of it.
Su Jiangtao chuckled, "Is it okay, Brother Jing?"
"Go ahead, go find Liu Qianhua and ask him to give you the blueprints. Then you can find a craftsman to make it yourself."
Su Jiangtao didn't dare to get close to the guards of the East Factory, but since An Jingzhi had promised him, he had no choice but to go. Fortunately, Liu Qianhua's attitude towards Su Jiangtao had improved a lot since he knew that Su Jiangtao had defected to An Jingzhi. After hearing the other party's intention, he immediately gave the drawings to him.
Su Jiangtao happily handed over a thank-you gift and took the drawings home.
Liu Qianhua weighed the silver and put it back with satisfaction.
Ever since he brought An Jingzhi back, he has become a favorite in An Zhongyi's eyes, and has been promoted and made a lot of money.
Now that he was in high spirits, he did not forget to pay attention to An Jingzhi's preferences. He was the first to know that An Jingzhi had accepted a younger brother.
"Lao Liu, bring me a bowl of fruit ice."
Hearing the sound coming from the room, Liu Qianhua immediately opened the door, answered and walked towards the kitchen.
As a factory owner, although it is winter, there are still a lot of fruits in the An Mansion, even more than in the imperial palace.
As for ice, they couldn’t use the ice stored in their cellar even in the middle of winter.
After knowing that An Jingzhi loved eating ice cream, someone prepared it every day.
After the fire wall was lit, the air was so dry that An Jingzhi would get nosebleeds if he didn't eat some ice cubes to cool down every day.
In ancient times, eating ice cubes by the fire in winter was a kind of enjoyment.
An Jingzhi was very picky about food, so An Zhongyi prepared several chefs for him, some who specialized in making pastries, some who specialized in cooking, and some who specialized in making drinks. Even the cooks were divided into southern dishes, northern dishes, sweet dishes, and spicy dishes. In short, his treatment was not much different from that of the emperor.
An Zhongyi himself didn't care much about these things, and the cook was hired after his son came.
An Jingzhi is picky about food because his stomach was damaged by hunger when he was a beggar, so he needs to nourish his stomach.
An Zhongyi wanted to compensate his son and give him the best things in the world.
After a while, Liu Qianhua came in with a bowl of crushed ice with red fruits on it. The juicy fruits made people's appetite increase just by looking at them.
"Sir, the fruit crushed ice is here."
This job was not originally Liu Qianhua's job, but he insisted on showing up in front of An Jingzhi.
An Jingzhi sat down from the couch and threw away the ancient version of the comic book at hand.
He picked up a piece of ice with a spoon and put it into his mouth along with the fruit. It was icy and sweet, and An Jingzhi smiled with satisfaction.
Seeing that he was enjoying his meal, Liu Qianhua said something and left.
…
After a drowsy nap, An Jingzhi was about to get up for dinner when he saw An Zhongyi coming home. Seeing that An Zhongyi didn't look well, he asked with concern,
"Dad, what's wrong with you?"
An Zhongyi forced a smile and said, "It's okay, my son, don't worry."
"Dad, we are one. If anything happens to you, your son can't escape. You don't tell your son anything. If something really happens in the future, what will you let your son do?"
An Jingzhi could understand the other party's desire to protect his son, but he did not agree with it.
An Zhongyi thought about it and thought about what happened recently. He said, "This year, there was heavy snow in the north. Many places were hit by snowstorms. Countless people froze to death."
An Jingzhi sighed. Even if he invented coal and even if he pushed the price down very low, it would not quench immediate thirst. It would be impossible to spread the business to the whole world all at once.
The coal mines purchased by An Zhongyi were also operated according to the method formulated by An Jingzhi, but the treatment was definitely not as good.
But this is enough to feed quite a few people.
But compared with the people of the world, the sale of these coal mines is just a drop in the bucket.
An Zhongyi continued, "To the north, a bandit leader has gathered hundreds of thousands of civilians and is storming the city. They've already captured two cities. The imperial court is planning to send troops to suppress them, and everything is very busy."
The original owner also had this incident in his memory. Later, with the court's full efforts to suppress the bandits, it took two years to completely eliminate the other party.
But this matter is like a gourd ladle in the water. When you press down the west side, the east side rises up again.
Many rebellions occurred one after another.
This year's heavy snow is just the beginning. Next year there will be a severe drought, and by then countless peasants will revolt.
"Son, you don't have to worry. They claim to have an army of hundreds of thousands, but in reality they are just a bunch of old and weak people. The imperial army will be able to easily suppress them."
Seeing An Jingzhi lost in thought, An Zhongyi thought that he was frightened, and hurriedly comforted him, feeling a little regretful that he had made the matter too serious.
"Dad, I'm fine. I just thought of something else."
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